


Dimming Lights

by BluePlanetTrash



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Character Death, Heavy Angst, M/M, Poisoning, Sad Ending, Sick Character, Sick Lance (Voltron), Sickfic, Tragedy, lance dies, poisoned lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-19 22:58:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14247543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePlanetTrash/pseuds/BluePlanetTrash
Summary: langst prompt: Lance is dying from an illness or injury?? He’s been in and out of the pods for months now. The whole team has accepted the fact that Lance is going to pass soon, they’ve done all they could but they don’t want Lance suffering any longer. Keith comforts him in his final moments, tell Lance that ‘it’s okay, you’ve fought so hard long enough. Get some rest, I’ll always be with you.’ And he dies in Keith’s arms.





	Dimming Lights

It started with a single hit to the side of Lance’s ribcage. At first, all of them including Lance thought that it was no big deal, just a mess of bruises along his ribcage, something that he didn’t even need to go in a healing pod for. That is until he started coughing up blood the next day.

They rushed him to the med bay and looked him over for any sign of injury, and laying there in the mess of bruises was a single puncture mark.

“What does that mean?” Shiro asked worriedly, looking over the top of Lance’s head to stare at Coran.

“I’m not sure, we’ll have to do some more testing,” he said seriously, turning from the examination bed to rifle through the cabinets.

“Are you okay? Does it hurt?” Hunk asked in concern, taking Lance’s hands in his own. Lance shook his head slightly.

“It doesn’t hurt, I feel completely normal except for the gross taste in my mouth,” he laughed, smiling up at Hunk.

“You’re not lying to me are you?” He pressed, staring into Lance’s eyes. Lance sighed and pulled his hands from Hunk’s.

“Unfortunately not, I mean I assume that not feeling like death after coughing up blood is a bad sign,” he said glancing around at the faces around him.

“It usually is, yes,” Coran answered finally returning with what looked like a handheld scanner and a needle to draw blood.

“Blood or scan first?” He asked cheerfully trying to lighten the mood if only a little. Lance smiled at him thankfully and stuck his arm out.

“Blood,”

“Very well then, the scanner will be able to pick up what is most likely happening, but the blood will narrow it down extensively,” he informed him as he poked Lance’s arm for a venipuncture.

“It can’t be too bad right?” He asked as blood started sliding into the tubes.

“I don’t imagine so, they might have caught you with the tip of a weapon or something similar, do you remember anything from when you got hit?” Coran asked.

“Not really, nobody sticks out anyway,” he admitted. “What about you guys?” He asked looking over at the rest of the paladins.

“No, only that most of the guards were sentries,” Keith spoke up. The rest of them nodded their heads in agreements and stuck to watching Coran work. After a minute he finished the bloodwork and set it to scan before turning back to the table.

“This should only take a second,” he grinned before light shone over Lance. A second later, a beep echoed through the room and they watched Coran anxiously as it processed. He hummed as readings scrolled across the screen but steadily grew wider and wider before he dropped the machine altogether and ran to where Lance’s blood was being analyzed.

“Coran?” Pidge called hesitantly. He didn’t turn until stared at the processing bar that stretched across the holopad.

“It’s bad isn’t it?” Lance whispered, staring at Coran’s form. Hunk wrapped his arm around Lance’s shoulders and dragged him over to lean against his chest.

“Maybe he’s just double checking stuff before he says for sure,” Hunk suggested with a hopeful grin. Lance doubted it but for Hunk’s sake gave him a small smile in return. Finally, the blood was fully processed and Coran brought up the result immediately. His shoulders were trembling and his fingernails were digging into his palms right through his gloves. As he read over the results, his shoulders slumped further and further down until he was standing stock still, the view of his back appearing utterly defeated.

“Coran?” Lance tried. At that he turned slowly, tears were already streaming down his face and he looked at Lance with such sorrowful eyes that he couldn’t help the painful clench that caught his stomach.

“I’m so sorry Lance,” he said faintly, shaking his head slightly. Lance’s eyes went wide and Coran stumbled over to him immediately taking his hands.

“What’s wrong with me?” Lance asked, his eyes welling up with tears.

“You’ve been injected with the poison Vrityl, there’s no antidote,” Coran told him softly clutching his hands like lifelines. “It causes the body to slowly deteriorate from the inside out,”

“There has to be something we can do!” Keith argued, his eyes bouncing from one face to the other.

“I wish there was, but this poison will destroy any antibodies that try to combat it,” Coran said mournfully. “It was created specially to kill,”

Lance sat in shock as he tried to process the news.

He was going to die.

He was going to die and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“That doesn’t mean we aren’t going to look for an antidote,” Shiro declared putting his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“And I’m not saying that you shouldn’t, I’m just saying to be prepared,” Coran warned them with sad eyes. He rubbed Lance’s other shoulder comfortingly and turned back to the holoscreen. He couldn’t look at Lance. He couldn’t do anything thing to help him either. He felt completely and utterly useless.

“I’ll go inform the Princess,” he decided, looking over at Lance again. His face scrunched up and he desperately tried to blink away tears. He knew how devastating this poison could be and he wasn’t looking forward to seeing the boy go through it.

“Thanks, Coran,” he heard Lance’s voice call as he exited the med bay.

* * *

True to their word, the paladins started searching every planet they saved for even a hint as to how they could cure Lance of the poison. So far, it didn’t seem like Lance had any symptoms and was functioning normally but they knew that it would only be a matter of time before he started to suffer.

No matter where they went through, as soon as they mentioned Vrityl all they got was a look of complete sympathy. They fought to get any information they could before Lance started to get any worse.

They were too late though.

Spontaneously, he started feeling pain all over his body no matter what he was doing a permanent ache constantly thrummed through his muscles. That was the first and only time that they put him in a pod. It was Coran and Allura’s idea and they believed that it would be able to minimize the pain that he was in for a short while. Enthusiastically, he agreed and when he came out again, he was able to participate in training for the first time in days.

However, the consequences were direr and when the pain returned he found himself sinking to the ground as tremors overtook his body. He had never felt pain like that before and he never wanted to ever again. They decided collectively that he wouldn’t be put into the pods again for the fear that he would deteriorate quicker.

The only good thing that came out of the entire experience was how close Lance got to everybody else. It seemed that you made more friends at the end of your life than you would have thought, not that he wasn’t friends with them before but he couldn’t honestly say that Shiro knew anything about him before he was poisoned.

He was just glad that he fell in love before he died.

Not with Shiro though. Surprisingly, it was with Keith. Not so surprising on his end either since he had a crush on the boy since the first days of the Garrison. It seemed that a situation like this really made people brave and Keith was no exception and he soon confessed to Lance, who burst into tears at the admission.

And for a while, everything was okay.

But then Lance couldn’t keep anything down. No matter what they fed him, it would come back up. Sometimes life was cruel and it would stay down for a little while and give them a bit of hope before Lance would violently throw it all up again.

It was hard to watch the once lively young man, slowly sink into himself.

“If I shrunk to a skeleton, would you still love me?” He asked Keith one day as he carried Lance back to his room after he collapsed on the bridge while watching the paladins training.

“I will always love you,” he replied confidently, and it was true. There wasn’t anyone in the world he loved more than Lance. No matter what he looked like. No matter how he acted. He would love Lance until the very end.

It was a gut-wrenching blow to the team when Lance lost the ability to walk. The pain became too crippling for him to even get out of bed in the morning. They didn’t know until they walked into Lance’s room to get him for breakfast and saw him lying on the floor tangled in his blankets.

It was the first time that they actually saw Lance cry since he was poisoned.

He curled around himself protectively and was letting out uncontrollable sobs. His fists pounded into the floor around him as he chanted,

“Why me? Why me? Why did it have to be me?”

Keith sunk to the floor beside him and dragged Lance to lean against him as they cried together, mourning the unfairness of it all and the life that they would never have together.

From then on, there was always someone at Lance’s bedside no matter what came up. They never wanted Lance to be alone, it wasn’t fair to him. Lance appreciated it as well, happily smiling at anyone that entered his room and excitedly patting the chair that was set up at his bedside. Even as he shook with pain and the struggle to stay alert and awake for whoever showed up as company, he would give them an encouraging grin.

Every day though, that grin would waver more and more and his eyes would get just a little bit dimmer. He would fall asleep quicker than before and was less and less alert every time someone came into the room. Until one day, he just wouldn’t wake up. They called Coran in frantically, sobs pouring out of their mouths and hands tugging at their hair as they watched Lance be looked over.

“He’s fallen into a coma,” Coran told them gravely. He rested his hand on Lance’s forehead and watched him for a moment, remembering the lively boy who first stepped into the Castle. Now he was reduced to this.

“What do we do?” Pidge asked looking at him with big eyes.

“I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do but wait,” he told her regretfully. She nodded her head in understanding and looked back over to the bed.

Why did it have to be Lance?

* * *

 

For the last few weeks of his life, they set him up in the med bay where it all started. It was easier to take care of him there than in his room and the bed was much more comfortable for him.

They covered the entire thing up with pillows, blankets, and anything soft enough to cushion the fragile paladin. Looking at him now, he really did look like the seventeen-year-old he was. Lance had always been skinny but never like this; his cheeks were sunken in and his eyes were ringed with darkness.

It was painfully obvious that he was on the last leg of his journey.

They gathered around him, tears already coursing down their cheeks as they watched his chest move slowly up and down, fearing that at any moment it would stop completely.

With a sad whimper, Hunk brushed Lance’s hair out of his face and crouched close to his face.

“Hey bud,” he whispered quietly brushing tears away from his face. With a loud breath in as if he was just waking up, Lance opened his eyes.

“Hunk, hi,” he replied just as quietly, watching him with the same bright blue eyes as before everything happened. Hunk let out a sob and pressed Lance’s hand to his own forehead. The rest of them jolted forward to rest a hand somewhere on Lance, Keith taking his other hand. They were painfully aware that this was most likely Lance’s final surge, even if he wasn’t completely lucid.

“How do you feel Lance?” Shiro gasped, rubbing Lance’s leg comfortingly. Lance gave him a small smile, one that they hadn’t seen for a long time before then.

“I feel,” he let out a long breath. “I feel good,”

“That’s good, that’s really good Lance,” he croaked pressing his other hand against his eyes, never once letting go of Lance.

He looked over to Keith with a smile and kissed a trembling kiss on their intertwined hands. Keith’s throat tightened and he bent over their hands as teardrops fell to the blanket.

“I love you,” Lance whispered happily, resting his forehead against their hands. A choked sob tore it’s way from Keith.

“I love you too, so much, I love you so much Lance,” he blubbered. Lance let out a weak laugh at that.

Pidge tightened her hands in the blankets by Lance’s knees and pressed her face into the blankets as sobs finally overtook her. With a sad frown, Lance slipped his hands from Hunk and threaded his bony fingers through her hair. Pidge’s shoulders shook violently as he soothingly scratched her scalp.

“It’s okay Pidge,” he murmured. Even as he tried to comfort her, she couldn’t stop the overwhelming sadness that was hanging over her.

“Lance do you know what’s happening to you?” Hunk asked, sniffling as his fingers gently combed through Lance’s hair. He turned to face him again and gave him another smile.

“I have to say goodbye,”

“Oh, Lance,” he whimpered, his vision blurring dramatically as a fresh wave of tears started.

“I love you, Hunk,”

“I love you too, so much!” He bawled, pushing his face into Lance’s shoulder. He had never felt hurt like this before. He had never felt the pain of losing a loved one like this. This was his best friend. The person that he was supposed to conquer everything with. This was his brother.

“I love you, Pidge,”

“I love you too Lance,” she struggled to get out. Her breath was coming in fast pants as her face crumpled in sorrow. She couldn’t lose him. She couldn’t. He was family, they were supposed to get their families back together. It wasn’t fair. Why did they have to take him? Why did they have to take someone like Lance?

“I love you, Shiro,”

“I love you too buddy,” he sobbed wiping at his eyes, his knuckles shaking in the fabric of the blanket. He was supposed to get Lance back to Earth safely and he failed him. He couldn’t even give Lance the one thing that he wanted the most, to go back home. He failed him as a leader. He failed him as a brother.

“I love you, Coran,”

“I love you too, my boy,” he wept quietly standing at the end of the bed. Tears were rolling down his cheeks and falling carelessly to the floor. He had never felt such affection for someone since the loss of his own son, now he was losing another. It would never be the same in the Castle again. They would never be able to think of themselves as Voltron again without pain. It was something that he was okay with enduring.

“I love you, Allura,”

“Oh Lance, I love you too,” she cried covering her mouth with her hand. She couldn’t bear to see Lance in this state. She could still remember him gracefully dancing around the room at any opportunity and excitedly dashing off to visit with Blue at every chance.

“I love you, Keith,”

“I love you too,” Keith whimpered brokenly, leaning forward to rest his forehead against Lance’s and place a small kiss on his lips. He could feel the edges of Lance’s mouth turning up and another sob broke out of his mouth.

“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, I don’t know what I’m going to do without you,” he admitted, his breath hitching every few seconds as he tried to calm himself slightly.

“Why are you crying?” Lance asked softly, brushing away the tears on Keith’s cheeks. He gave him a small grin even as his head tilted in confusion.

“I just love you so much, I can’t contain myself,” Keith laughed, his eyes continuously wetting his cheeks.

“Hehe, I love you too,”

“I know Lance,” he said, taking their hands and pressing them to his cheek. He could see Lance’s eyes beginning to close and the smile starting to dwindle.

“I’m tired,” Lance admitted quietly looking at Keith blearily. Keith nodded shakily and rubbed his thumb over Lance’s cheek.

“I know, and it’s okay,” he whispered painfully. His eyes were burning and he gave Lance a trembling smile. “You’ve fought so hard for so long, I’m so proud of you, get some rest, I’ll always be with you,” he kissed Lance hand as tears rolled down his cheeks.

“Okay,” Lance sighed contently giving Keith one last grin before finally slipping his eyes shut.

They never opened again.

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me on tumblr at blueplanettrash


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